religion

Two conferences, one in Halle (Saale) and the other in Atlanta (Georgia), aim to bring together researchers interested in the Francke Foundations in Halle, the English missionary societies, and the founding of the colony of Georgia. While the conference in Halle will focus on a systematic comparison between these institutions, the conference in Atlanta will address the social consequences. The main question is what types of social order the Protestant reform movements in Prussia, England, and Georgia promoted.

 Renewing Faith, Improving Society. A Comparison of Protestant Reform Movements in Prussia, England, and Georgia (first half of the 18th century)

Call for Abstracts!Elvis and Philosophy: Essays Concerning the King

Edited by Joshua Heter and Richard Greene

Abstracts are sought for a collection of essays on any philosophical topic related to Elvis Aaron Presley to be published with Wallace & Jacobs Press. We hope to receive a number of submissions concerning his music and movies as well as his persona, life, relationships, cultural impact, legacy, mythos, etc.

The Margaret Atwood Society invites paper proposals for an online panel focusing on how Atwood’s writing engages religious and spiritual practices and the supernatural. We welcome proposals that consider how Atwood’s works mobilize the sacred, the ritual, the metaphysical, and/or the ghostly as vehicles for meaning-making, ethical reflection, and narrative strategy. Possible topics include but are not limited to:

·       Religion as ideology

·       Spirituality and folk belief outside institutional frameworks

·       Myth, ritual, and cosmology

·       Scriptural and prophetic discursive modes

·       Haunting, spectrality, and divided subjectivity

Since the turn of the millennium, migration to Europe has significantly increased. Individuals have come to this continent often fleeing conflict and political instability as well as seeking improved social and economic wellbeing. For migrants, engagement in religious practice is a key resource in the post-migration period. Religious activities and infrastructure offer practical and spiritual support, as well as being a source of social belonging for newly arriving migrants. These factors often help individuals navigate structural inequalities, for example, facilitating access to social services.

What roles do ‘hierarchy’ and ‘egality’, as values and practices, play in the everyday lives of South Asian traditions? Hierarchy as a value in the social life of Hinduism has been much discussed. Scholarship has tended to contrast a transhistorical Hindu hierarchy with egalitarian elements of Muslim, Christian, Buddhist and Sikh thought in South Asia, framing ubiquitous caste-like social forms among the latter traditions as anomalous. Yet careful studies of everyday life in the religious traditions of South Asia suggest that a far more heterogeneous set of social imaginaries and a far more complex entanglement of hierarchy and egality are, in fact, shaping the trajectory of both inter-caste and inter-religious relations and practices.

International Symposium: SDGs through Hindu Worldviews – Spiritual Care in a VUCA–BANI World
February 25–26, 2026 | IIT (BHU), Varanasi | Hybrid (Online + Offline)

Beginning with Jonathan Hickman’s House of X/Powers of X limited series, the Krakoan Age X-Men stories occur against the backdrop of the establishment of a post-scarcity and post-mortality mutant homeland on the living island of Krakoa. The Krakoan Age ran from 2019 and 2024 and included more than 500 issues spread across 80 different comic titles. Within this vast body of text, a dizzying plurality of story-types are explored, ranging from gritty police procedurals, to sprawling war stories, to cozy slice-of-life tales. The Krakoan Age stories are also notable in their creative and interesting engagement with religious stories and themes, particularly in series such as Way of X, Legion of X and The Onslaught Revelation.

The Charlotte Perkins Gilman Society will host two panels at the 37th Annual American Literature Association Conference, May 20-23, 2026 in Chicago. We invite proposals for presentations on any aspect of Gilman’s life and work.

Possible topics include but are by no means limited to:

• Gilman and the Female Gothic

• Gilman and Xenofeminism

• Gilman and First Wave Feminism

• Gilman and Medicine / the Health Humanities

• Gilman and Utopianism

• Gilman and Evolutionary Science

• Gilman and Religion

• Gilman and Queer Culture

Beauty and the Revival of Faith will take place on 8-10 May, 2026, at the Archbishop’s Palace, Southwell, Nottingham, U.K. 

The 1st Symposium on the Chinese Translation of the Greek Septuagint
（第一屆中文七十士譯本翻譯學術研討會）

Hong Kong, 22-24 April 2026 (Wed to Fri)

CALL FOR PAPERS

Theme: Towards a Chinese Translation of the Greek Septuagint: Opportunity and Challenge   

The conference aims to explore both opportunities and complexities involved in rendering the Greek Septuagint into Chinese. Participants are encouraged to present research on the following themes:

How do we mark transitions, generate transformational visions, and model alternate ways of being in a world imploding around us? How do we find joy while surrounded by brokenness? How do we heal when systems are structured against us? What rituals or practices can restore us, even speak to our souls? The next issue of Rejoinder explores the theme of ritual, healing, and world-making. Submissions (including essays, commentary, criticism, fiction, poetry, and artwork) should address this theme from feminist, queer, and social justice-inspired perspectives. We particularly welcome contributions at the intersection of scholarship and activism.

The historical relationship between Muslims and Christians dates back to the seventh century C.E., when Islam began to spread throughout the Middle East, Africa, and the Indian subcontinent; by the early eighth century, parts of Europe were under Muslim control. Consequently, this Special Issue seeks to understand Christian–Muslim interactions over the centuries. Recent studies of Syriac texts reveal early interactions between Christians and Muslims, the beginning of centuries of Christian–Muslim dialogues, debates, and perspectives that continue into the present day.

Plant Lives: Sacred Interdependencies in the Arts of the Americas

A planting event and conference hosted by the Yale Institute of Sacred Music

April 11, 2026

In 1831, the preacher Nat Turner testified that hieroglyphics had appeared to him on leaves and corn stalks in a field. These hieroglyphics, he said, relayed divine messages that inspired him to lead a rebellion of enslaved Virginians. The starting point for this one-day conference is the many capacities of plants to transmit divine insights across time. This event at the Yale Institute of Sacred Music will explore the ways in which plants perform, evoke, and embody sacred relations throughout the Americas.

Lolly Willowes at 100: Sylvia Townsend Warner, Religion, and the Supernatural

IAS Common Ground, University College London, 29-30 May 2026